A documentary-style coming-of-age drama from Ukraine, Kateryna Gornostai's 'Stop-Zemlia' focuses on a teenage girl and her two besties.
Ukrainian filmmaker Kateryna Gornostai turns to her teenage years, in all their feelings, friendship and fumbling, for her directorial debut, “Stop-Zemlia,” an immersive portrait of high school life, that time when young adults muddle through the process of becoming themselves.
Opening with a series of portraits of her teenage characters pulled from documentary-style interviews peppered throughout the film, the narrative zeroes in on Masha , one of the kids on the outside of the popular gang, who finds tight-knit companionship with her two best friends, Yana and Senia . This trio is often nihilist about the state of the world, but Masha has a comfortable life.
At times, “Stop-Zemlia” feels a bit long, but it’s a pleasure to simply spend time in this world with these characters, to feel so deeply what they do. At the end of the movie, Masha asks the documentarian in the film, “Do you feel connected to your emotional state when you were my age?” The sensually crafted “Stop-Zemlia” is a fine conduit to bring forth those visceral sense memories of teenage life.